Jury convicts man of stabbing friend during drunken row

A TEENAGER who stabbed his best friend in a drunken argument has been convicted of wounding with intent to cause serious harm.

A jury took two hours yesterday to decide James Waterall was guilty, after listening to evidence during a three-day trial at Derby Crown Court.

Waterall, who had plunged a knife into the shoulder of Terry Bentley puncturing his lung, said he had stabbed his friend in self-defence.

Remanding Waterall into custody to await sentencing later this month, Judge Ebraham Mooncey said: "The jury has found you guilty, in my view quite rightly so, of wounding with intent. It's a sad case, come what may."

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The court was told that Waterall, 19, of Seymour Close, Ilkeston had a previous conviction for battery in 2010. Judge Mooncey said: "I'm concerned about his loss of temper; his loss of control on previous occasion and this occasion."

During the trial, Mr Bentley, 19, told the jury he and Waterall had been drunk and were arguing but he could not recall why – or much of what had happened before his friend plunged the knife into his left shoulder.

He said they had been standing, facing each other and arguing, when he had felt "a cold, sharp spike" in the area. He said Waterall had looked like a different person, "possessed", just before he stabbed him.

Prosecutor Julia King told the jury that the stabbing had taken place in the early hours of June 10 in a flat in Mill Lane, Ilkeston.

Mr Bentley was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre, in Nottingham. A scan revealed he had suffered a collapsed lung.